they make sure it's all right. they'll start signing. about 50 guys sign it on august 2nd. a few more over the next couple of weeks. one guy might not be for a couple more years because he wasn't here for a while as a member of congress. that's the one if you go to washington, d.c., national archives, that's the one most of us think of as the declaration of independence. but it's one that we, like everything they're going to do in this room is one that we get to by process rather than by some master plan at the beginning. they are making it all along as they go along and figuring it out as they go. the other big thing that's going to happen late that year of 1776, benjamin franklin is going to go to france. and he is going to be the guy that's going to help convince france to come into the war on our side. and while the british army is in this room, in early 1778, benjamin franklin is signing a peace treaty with france. that's changing the whole nature of the war.

the british suddenly find they have to worry about a french navy. the united states doesn't have much of a navy to threaten the british fleet, but france does. so they have to worry about that. the british have to worry about being invaded. guys like benjamin franklin working with lafayette in france work on the king to try to get some invasion of england going. you'll have to worry if you are great britain about islands in the caribbean, you'll be fighting in asia, africa, all over the world. so a lot of resources suddenly aren't coming here to north america which makes george washington's life easier. we'll get money from france. we'll get supplies from france. we'll get french troops, plus that french navy. if you think of our victory at york town, probably the biggest of the war, we're probably not going to get that victory without the french navy.

eventually the war slowly, and it is slowly, turns in our favor. 1783, back in paris, john adams and benjamin franklin sign a peace treaty. it's really back in 1783 that the continental congress can finally breathe that sigh of relief and know that we have achieved this american independence which would be nice if that's the end of our story, but there's more to do. go back 1776. each state writes its own constitution. each one is different. each one has its own sets of government and laws. i'll use pennsylvania. pennsylvania decides to write a constitution that's so radical for its day they get rid of the position of governor. they'll not have really a chief executive for pennsylvania anymore. they'll have a fairly democratically run one-house legislature as opposed to the standard two houses that most of the states are going to use, that the united states knows throughout its history.

pennsylvania has a very different set-up. it proves to be too radical to work. and it's only going to last about 17 years. they'll have to redo it and go to the traditional governor, two houses of legislature set-up. in 1776, each of these states is going to start itself over. now the problem is, being all a little bit different, and one of my colleagues loves to talk about that today. we still have differences from state to state as far as speed limits and little rules for driving are going to be different. and so we still have some of those vestiges there.

now what do we have in the way of government? state governments, very much hold the cards. there is our continental congress. now the articles of confederation sets the rules for the continental congress. that's an idea that comes into this room with benjamin franklin. at the very beginning of the war, it's an idea he dusted off from the 1750s during the french and indian war. this idea of confederation between the colonies to work together to defend themselves against enemies such as france. he dusts off the old ideas. rewrites this first version of the articles of confederation. the day after they chose the committee to write the declaration of independence, they also chose a committee with a member from each of the states to write the articles of confederation. the main writer, another

pennsylvanian, john dickinson. again, dickinson would be famous for kind of trying to slow us down for independence. at the same time he's making those arguments he's writing the articles of confederation. an agreement between how the united states is going to operate. where essentially the congress would run the war, run foreign policy, the states would run their internal, but they would cooperate with each other. you wouldn't have to pay taxes and tariffs as you went from state to state. the first problem with the articles of confederation and what dooms is, you can see by how it is signed. the signing will take place when the continental congress comes back to philadelphia after the british have left in 1778. back to washington after the the british leave philadelphia in june. congress is back meeting here in july. and on july 9th, they are ready

to sign the articles of confederation. the way the signing of that one works is different. the declaration of independence is signed by the delegates and most of them signed it on the same day. the articles of confederation is signed as each state approves it. their delegates will sign it. they are waiting for their -- the states to make their decision. half sign the first day and over the next week, most of the rest will sign. now ultimately, one state, maryland, will hold out for close to two years. so the signing will begin july 9th and won't finish until march the 1st of 1781. two and a half years. for most of that time, it's maryland by itself saying no. technically this cannot go into effect until all 13 states have agreed and signed. maryland is feuding with mainly virginia, their neighbors, over land to the west. when the revolutionary war comes to an end we go from our old colonial boundaries which would be about the appalachian mountains, although the colonies each figured they kept going.

now we end at the mississippi river. that's a lot of new land. think of all the states between the east coast and mississippi river. all the old states and colonies are looking at that land saying that would be great as part of my state. maryland and virginia are arguing over who gets the potomac river and things like that. maryland is going, i don't want to sign this until everything is settled. there's your issue that arises. and there will be others. there's a bill at one point trying to pass through this room to raise money on essentially imports. take money from imports, like a tax tariff and put that to paying the soldiers. seems logical. why would you not want to raise money to pay the army fighting for independence. 12 of the states agreed. seems like a good idea. one, which happened to be rhode island, the smallest of the states said no, and the vote failed. the states individually have a

lot more power and sometimes one can defeat 12. a lot of people start thinking, this isn't working so well, including members of the congress. by the end of the war, you have members of the congress writing letters to officers in the army as the war is winding down saying, you know, maybe the army should try to throw their weight behind putting something more strong together here in philadelphia because this isn't really working between the states. maybe we need the strength of that army. george washington, of course, is very much a believer in this idea of civilian control. that's one of the great principles we've embraced in american history from our beginning points and george washington is a big part of that. one of what a lot of people would look at as one of his greatest moments, at end of the war up in newburg, new york,

he's going to call a meeting together of all his officers as this word of, you know, maybe the army trying to change government a little bit. and he's against it. he calls a meeting, puts some of the guys he feels are behind a lot of this talk in charge of the meeting. he's not going to be there. he wants them to talk amongst themselves. then he shows up. washington is not a public speaker. this is not a man who wants to stand up and make speeches. if he can avoid it he's going to do it. but he comes and he starts making a speech. and he wants to read this letter. he pulls out a pair of glasses and puts them on and said i've not only grown gray but half blind as well. he's talking about this idea of what they fought for together for eight years. and that it not be ruined by rash actions at the end. he's got guys in tears. and the whole thing sort of -- what we call the newberg conspiracy kind of goes away. and even though the problems hadn't been solved, this idea of military intervention in our civilian government,

fortunately, fades out of view. but still washington does believe that something stronger is needed, but he is one of those guys who is going to go through the proper channels. george washington is a virginian. his state is fighting with their neighbors in maryland. what can george washington do about that? he can have a meeting at his house and invite virginians and marylanders to sit together. he'll do that after the war ends. he has this mt. vernon conference. and they'll sign an agreement together solving essentially years of problems between maryland and virginia which then leads to a meeting in maryland, where they'll invite more states. they'll get five states to meet in annapolis. the annapolis convention. and again, the big result is it's going to lead to a bigger meeting. they'll go. now our friend john dickinson is going to the continental congress with a letter he's written saying we want a big

meeting in philadelphia back in the same room. we want to really talk about the future, and we want everybody to come. they'll sit down starting in may of 1787, what we today call the constitutional convention. they'll sit in this same room and address these issues plaguing the young united states. it's going to start with about 11 states. new hampshire will show up late. unfortunately, rhode island will never attend these meetings. now, this time they're not about to let one state keep them from getting something done. they'll pretend there's only 12 of them. and not only that, but when they vote, they'll go to the people in each state. let the people vote on a special convention and then the special conventions will approve or not approve the constitution for each state, and then you need nine states, three-quarters of them, to put this new

constitution into effect. these are guys trying to engineer something because they know something needs to be done to hold these states together. they know as separate entities, you go back to benjamin franklin's design, the snake cut in pieces. that benjamin franklin had put together during the french and indian war, join or die. a snake put in pieces is going to die. a lot of men are embracing that summer of 1787. the questions they'll face in this room is what exactly is it that we want. so the first days of meetings are these very esoteric debates about the nature of federal government, national government, what's the difference, what do we want? they're getting deep into these things. they are saying we want this national government. and then they start saying, well, then what is it going to be? well, virginia had come very organized. james madison is going to get credit for putting together a

lot of the virginia plan that's submitted by edmond randolph, who is eventually our first attorney general. another virginian is chosen by nomination from pennsylvania to sit in the back of the room and lead the constitutional convention. and that will be george washington. the big hero of the day, of course, equal now to franklin as far as american fame goes, and so washington will take the lead in the constitutional convention. and the very chair in the back of the room behind me is the chair in which washington sat which, interestingly, is the only item in this room that we today have in this room that we know for certain was here as a part of those events. that chair was made in 1779 after the british left philadelphia. a lot of things were gone between the americans coming and going, british coming and going. we just don't have all the contents of the building anymore. pennsylvania's government has to

make new furniture, including that chair for the speaker of pennsylvania. so that was in the room on that spot when washington took that position in 1787. so the virginia plan, three branches of government, somewhat familiar to us today, here's some of the issues that are going to face that plan as far as when you start debating. other plans are going to get thrown out by other men. one of the biggest things is this notion of voting based on american people. seeing the states at artificial. everybody in all the states is americans. so whenever we do things, we should just be americans. why be virginians or somebody from massachusetts or delaware or anywhere else. let's be americans. well, naturally, the other side of that coin, as some of the states would look, is that virginia happens to have more people than any other state. voting by people is definitely good for virginia.

so a small state like delaware pretty much embraces one idea and that's the idea that every state be equal. every state get an equal vote. delaware is going to refuse to anything that doesn't involve equality amongst the states. you get the small states naturally liking delaware's idea. the big states, virginia's idea. that's a debate that will go on for a month off and on. virginia's idea of congress is that we have these two houses. upper house, lower house. what becomes our senate and house of representatives. it's based on population. but as you start debating it, you have others saying, base it on states. so eventually when it seems like there's no answer to be found, it would be connecticut that would make the compromise. what we call the connecticut compromise or great compromise, would give us this question of how about a senate where every

state is equal, house of representatives where we base things on people. both sides getting some of what they want. eventually, of course, that's exactly how it would go. but not everybody loves that. so you aren't sure if everybody is going to go for that, about -- but that's pretty much how they slot in for congress. now the president. there's another one. there's multiple ideas of president, of executive. the virginia plan, as they start working through it, is ultimately a seven-year executive elected by congress. so a little bit different system obviously than we're used to today. the -- another plan, edmond randolph of virginia, says how about having three presidents at once? he's talking about three regional presidents. then you have alexander hamilton of new york who wants a very strong executive. how about president for lifetime which, needless to say having gotten rid of a king a few years ago was not overly popular to these men.

they settle on a president for four years at a time. then that level of electoral college. we get a lot of questions about that. why would they do that electoral college? probably several reasons. one is simple distance. the idea of having states that are days and days and weeks apart of each other from georgia to new hampshire with not a lot of great roads and travel can be difficult, so having this notion of sending people together to vote makes a lot of sense. mechanically. then also you have this idea that with the electoral college you're making sure the smaller states have a certain amount of say. you're trying to balance a lot of different things. and talking about that, again, one of the things that will plague the young united states is something that does come up in this room that summer of 1787. this is the idea of slavery. is this the time to make that

big step and do away with slavery? unfortunately, it wasn't. the southern states, obviously, are fairly attached to it. they don't particularly want to talk about it. the only slavery, the word doesn't even make it into the constitution. you have one little notion of the slave trade, which they talk about in 20 years, maybe we can discuss doing away with the slave trade, importing slaves from africa. but that's about all the mention you get. of course, anyone that's anti-slavery, which there are guys in this room decidedly so, is not very happy we put this off for 20 years. the entire discussion let alone any action. and, of course, southern states would look at, in 20 years this is going to come up again. because we didn't put it away forever. you have a lot of people looking at sections of this constitution that aren't very happy. now who writes the constitution? declaration of independence, that's easy. thomas jefferson was on the committee but basically wrote

it. constitution, there's really not going to be that one obvious writer. you'll have a five-man committee called the committee of detail, which name is exactly what it sounds like. the guys putting in the details of what this government is going to be. three of the five will be on the united states supreme court. one will be our first attorney general. so that's the kind of men you'll have on there. the very much legal minded men. probably the main guy who puts together most much their reports is james wilson from pennsylvania. he is one of the signers of the declaration of independence as well. he'll end up on the united states supreme court. and more than likely, he came up with the three words, "we the people" at the beginning of the constitution. that's the beginning of the committee report. we the people. nothing else that would be recognizable to us today but he does start out with "we the people."

now as they go thu this committee of detail report, eventually they get to a point they worked out how they want it to be. they form another five-man committee. this is the committee of style. here's where some of your heavy hitters are going to be. alexander hamilton and james madison on this committee. the guy who probably will take up the pen and do most of the writing is a pennsylvanian named guvernor morris. a man with a wooden leg. but another one of these men very gifted with the pen. and morris is a friend of george washington's. there's a story that comes from that summer with morris and alexander hamilton basically there's a bet made that hamilton makes with morris because morris says i'll just go up and slap george washington on the back and say, how are you doing kind of thing. washington is this very formal guy who doesn't even like to shake hands.

he prefers to bow. he can be a bit on the aloof side, especially in public. so hamilton is like, you're never going to do that. i'll bet you dinner you'll not do it. of course, morris goes and does it and washington gives him one of his glaring looks. i'm sure hamilton is standing in the corner laughing like mad. morris is the one that's going to write the we the people of the united states, in order to form a more perfect union, the famous preamble we know. so at the end of the day, you have this constitution. by september 15th, 1787, four pages. that's all it is, four pages. there's no bill of rights at that time. they kind of talked about it. alexander hamilton would say we don't need one. the whole thing's kind of a bill of rights. the government is only going to have the power we give it. why do we even need it? we'd like to see something like that there. so again, even by the time they

are finished you have guys that look at parts or the whole and say, there's this i don't like, that i don't like. i don't like this senate because it gives too much power to the little states. the president is too strong, not strong enough. we didn't deal with slavery. there's no bill of rights. you come in the last day and it's not at all certain everyone is going to agree. they are signing it to send it out for their states to vote on it. so it's important to the group as a whole to try to have everyone on board because these are the guys that have to sell this new constitution to the people, to that "we the people," so it will be put into effect. so you're going to have benjamin franklin come in the very last day of meetings. franklin is 81. there are days that he's literally being carried in and out of these meetings, can hardly walk. fortunately he's still the great sage, the elder statesman. on the last day he brings in a

speech in which he says there are things in this constitution i do not approve but then he said, at present, i'm old enough to know i'm not perfect. my ideas aren't perfect. nobody in this room is perfect. and we should all basically put aside our doubts and sign our names to this thing. he says we should all doubt a little our own infallibility. a typical franklin phrase. anyway, he says one of his great famous statements in the room. he says we should all sign because i do not expect anything better than this. in fact, i am not sure this is not the best. to me one of the most famous triple negatives in american history. i'm sure some of the guys in the room are scratching their heads. what did he say, did he say to sign it? in the end, it's hard to argue with franklin. 41 men are in the room that day.

38 men will sign 39 names. there's a little bit of a story to that one. john dickinson, who actually refused to sign the declaration of independence, again, not that he was loyal to the british particularly, but that he was saying this isn't the right time, this is a bad idea, we're rushing too much, so he never signs the declaration of independence. he's sick the day the constitution is going to be signed. he tells his fellow delegates from delaware, george reed, look, i want you to put my name on that thing when you sign it. george reed signs twice. once for himself, once for john dickinson. 39 men signed the constitution. three would not. different issues. elbridge sdwrer -- jerry of massachusetts who made a speech that last day, saying there was an excess of democracy

which we called the worst of all political evils. fear of democracy at that point in history is made evident a few years later in the french revolution when the new government went to the point of renaming and cutting off 6,000 heads and that's the fear of democracy that leads to some sort of chaotic anarchy. they went back to rome and saw the same things happening. democracy was tempered here and britain which is where we get the ideas of having that mix. have a mix of states and people and a congress. it's the idea that there's no one place where it has too much strength. jerry is a little afraid the democracy will overrun, so he

won't sign it. randal ends up supporting it when virginia's voting on it, because he's afraid that guys like patrick henry will go against him because he knows patrick henry is one of those guys that doesn't think it's a great idea. and the other one, george mason is looking at the idea of the bill of rights and kind of wants to see that. he's not crazy about it. a lot of the guys from the big states like massachusetts or virginia don't like the senate. there's all kinds of issues. most of these men will put aside their doubts and sign their names. september 15 -- 17th, 1787. at that point, franklin looks at the chair where washington sits and says look behind washington's head. this carving of a half sun on the back of the chair. he said all summer i've been trying to determine if that sun is supposed to be rising or setting, and i could not make up my mind. until now. now at length i have the happiness to know that is a rising and not a setting sun.

he felt good. he's been working for this until -- since the 1750s this unity of the american states, and he finally sees it happening. one of the great stories that comes afterwards, he's supposedly asked what kind of a government was created here in philadelphia and he said it's a republic if you can keep it, his last warning to us. think about the united states. one of the things i like to finish with is this idea we're still using that same constitution and same government but it's also allowed us not quickly but definitely allowed us to improve because ultimately, slavery in the united states doesn't end by the civil war, technically, it's the constitution. 13th amendment. the 15th amendment gives equality in voting by color. 19th amendment gives equality in voting by gender. through the years we have faced every issue that's came up and

our constitution has allowed us to solve things and continue to move forward. again, i always think back to franklin and the rising sun and that's exactly what we've seen through the years. this little humble room is really everything that the united states has been and will be. it's going to grow from events that happen over about a 10-11 year period in this room and it's amazing when you think of this humble place and the men that sat here and the things they did, it's really incredible the things that have grown from this space. the pennsylvania state house is a real name of independence. it was pennsylvania's capitol until 1789. pennsylvania moves its government west to ultimately the center of the state, to harrisburg. well, at that point the building, they're using space in the building and renting it out. it's not the capitol building anymore. but the city of philadelphia had

started building buildings here on the block and by the earl 1800s, essentially the city is going to buy this building and this whole block is going to serve as our city hall. so through the 19th century, this is city hall. the second floor of the building holds meetings for philadelphia. but the first floor is probably one of the first places in the united states that becomes an historical place. by the 1820s, 30s, 40s, people are coming to visit. it gets the nickname independence hall. probably this room, in fact. was independence hall before the whole building became independence hall. one of the most famous incidents, a triumphant trip through the united states, the 1820s, very few of the founding fathers and soldiers from the army that are left. every town that lafayette

visits, you gather all the old veterans like thomas jefferson and tom adams are alive and they get together and celebrate lafayette. it's a wonderful explanation of patriot rancic memory. it's probably one of the first where we're looking and embracing history. people are starting to be able to purchase their copies of the declaration of independence and put them above the fireplace. and we're celebrating the words and the actual document. so fortunately, this room kind of becomes a historic place before they got to the point of totally getting rid of the building and turning it down to build something new. we're really lucky in a lot of ways it was used long enough it became important. by the mid-1800s, this whole thing is a museum. one of the most fascinating stories in this room when the liberty bell, spent almost a

hundred years in our bell tower cracked, they put it in this room. and one of my favorite days that's not one of the days of the revolutionary wars comes 150 years ago today this year in april. after abraham lincoln was assassinated. he came here to philadelphia, washington's birthday 1861 on his way to be inaugurated. he made a stop at independence fall, washington's birthday and he actually said in this room he would rather be assassinated on the spot than fail the ideals of the founding fathers which is actually the kind of strength that america needed at the time and sadly, four years later he comes back having been assassinated, but having succeeded in saves